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The El Colacho baby jumping festival. Source: Viaggio Routard / Flickr.

El Colacho: The Spanish Festival Where Men Jump Over Newborn Babies

In the heart of Spain, the quaint village of Castrillo de Murcia becomes the epicenter of a centuries-old tradition known as El Colacho, where men vault over newborns to ward off evil—a spectacle as...
Naki Sumo Baby Crying Festival. Source: lensonjapan / Flickr.

Sumo Wrestlers Make Babies Cry at the Ancient Naki Sumo Festival

History is replete with oddities and peculiar rituals that have stood the test of time, and Japan, with its rich tapestry of culture and traditions, is no exception. Enter the "Naki Sumo Baby Crying...
Medea of Greek mythology about to kill her children, which is what infanticide is, in a painting by Eugène Delacroix.		Source: Eugène Delacroix / Public domain

Ancient Greeks Did Not Practice Infanticide Widely, Says Latest Study

“Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth,” is a law of propaganda often attributed to the Nazi Joseph Goebbels. One such lie has been the notion that Ancient Greeks regularly practiced...
Haunting and beautiful Middle-Earth-like elves by artist

Icelanders Believed in Elves, But it is Probably Not What You Think

Icelanders believe in elves. They refuse to begin major construction projects unless they consult with elves first. They lobby their politicians on behalf of elf colonies. They run “elf schools” and...
Just Like Us, Neanderthal Babies Ate Solid Food at 6 Months Old

Just Like Us, Neanderthal Babies Ate Solid Food at 6 Months Old

A new study proves that just like modern humans, Neanderthal babies were also weaned at six months old. This fascinating new discovery comes after a team of researchers studied three Neanderthal milk...
A Middle Bronze Age infant from the Lebanese site of Sidon buried in a large jar. (Claude Doumet-Serhal/ CC BY-NC-ND)

Babies Found in Jars Reveal Insights into Ancient Breastfeeding

Historians down the ages have examined the ebb and flow of populations in ancient societies. But most of these examinations have tended to focus on male dominated events – the wars, the politics, and...
François Joseph Navez, The Massacre of the Innocents, 1824

The Chilling Ancient Practice of Infanticide Was Once Accepted as Normal

Today, the thought of infanticide – the intentional killing of infants – fills us with horror, but in many ancient societies, not only was this practice permitted, it was considered a regular fact of...
Do You Think Breastfeeding a 3-Year-Old is Strange? In the Ancient World, It Saved Lives

Do You Think Breastfeeding a 3-Year-Old is Strange? In the Ancient World, It Saved Lives

There was a time in humanity’s history that later weaning of children, up to 3 years, was considered perfectly normal. In fact, late weaning may have actually saved lives by giving kids the nutrition...
Sculpture of child, deriv.

Swapping Babies: The Disturbing Faerie Changeling Phenomenon

The worldwide stories of faerie changelings come under a group of motifs recorded in the Aarne-Thompson folklore index as F321: ‘Faerie steals child from cradle and leaves faerie substitute.’ The...
Accounts of Roman Infanticide and Sacrifice All Just Myth and Legend?

Accounts of Roman Infanticide and Sacrifice All Just Myth and Legend?

It has long been taken as fact that ancient Romans brutally murdered, abandoned or sacrificed countless infants as piles of baby bones have been found at numerous Roman sites. However, a new study...
Small grave at the Children’s Fort in Tullycrine, Ireland

The Graveyard of the Lost: Why Hundreds of Children were Buried in an Old Irish Ring Fort

Inside the ring fort at Tullycrine in West Clare, Ireland, visitors can see the graves of hundreds of children dating from a period in Irish history when those who had not been baptized were banned...
The Temple of the Sun, in front of which almost 100 bodies, including many infants, were excavated from an unlooted tomb.

Ring of Babies: The disturbing scene found in 1,000-year-old tomb in Peru

A disturbing scene unfolded as archaeologists in Peru excavated a 1,000-year-old tomb at the pre-Inca Pachacamac site several years ago: a ring of babies that had been buried with their heads facing...
Old well at Monopolata village of Kefalonia island in Greece.

Hundreds of babies found in mass grave in ancient Athenian well were not victims of infanticide

A team of researchers using the latest technologies have come to startling new conclusions about the discovery of 450 dead babies and 150 dogs in an ancient Greek well. The discovery of the baby’s...
Infant skeleton found beneath Roman bathhouse in Ashkelon, Israel

The discovery of a mass baby grave under Roman bathhouse in Ashkelon, Israel

Along the shores of Israel's Mediterranean coast, in the ancient seaport of Ashkelon, archaeologist Ross Voss made a gruesome find. While exploring one of the city’s sewers, he discovered a large...
Incan Mummies

Five heart-warming and heart-breaking archaeological discoveries

When describing the discovery of an ancient love letter placed upon the body of a loved one, Chris Scarre, head of the archaeology department at the University of Durham, said: “archaeologists who...